Faithfulness

Father, how unfailingly
Your mercy you extend to me
Though I offend continu'lly
In all I'm not, but ought to be. 

How sharp I feel the lack, my Lord
When I consider all your Word
To which I know to match my ways,
But still rebel and make delays. 

So let that poignance match the nails
Which you delayed not to impale
Christ, who became my sin's redress
That I'd become your righteousness. 

And with that mercy, send your grace
To lift up my downturnéd face
By strengthening me in your ways
To run enduringly this race. 

Uphold me that my steps not fal-
Ter til your will in me is done
For the sake of the prize of your upward call:
To be formed to the image of your Son.

Humility (a Poem for Good Friday)

References:

Matthew 27 (& etc.)

Peri Pascha (by Melito of Sardis)

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The One who set the stars in place Himself is set with nails
He, mercilessly mocked and scorned, whose mercy never fails
Those hands which span the heavens and guide galaxies in course
Now stretched out on a cross of wood, must strain, each breath to force
As He who hung the moon and sun is hung beneath their gaze
The Radiance of the Father's glory, flogged in place of praise

That Word whose pow'r sustains existence answered none at all
To those who lied to see Him tried, condemned without a fault
A crown of thorns and nakedness adorn the King of kings
The End of all true sacrifice giv'n up as Offering
How dark becomes the sky above this scorning of the Light--
The Lord of Hosts arrested, tortured, here without a fight!

What greater darkness shows within the heart and soul and mind
Of men, who work thus to destroy the Maker of mankind!
What fickle and ungrateful crowd, so readily deceived
To render thus the breath He gave: "Let Him be crucified!"
So that at their behest the Judge of all mankind received
The judgement of mankind and died.

"The Table that the Lord Prepares..."

"The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want...

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies." (Psalm 23:1, 5)

"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:11)

"And [Jesus] took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, 'This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of him who betrays me is with me on the table. For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed!'" (Luke 22:19-22)

"So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them." (John 19:16b-18)

"...and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies..." (Genesis 22:17b)

"I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades." (Revelation 1:18b)

"For you have delivered my soul from death,

my eyes from tears,

my feet from stumbling;

I will walk before the LORD

in the land of the living." (Psalm 116:8-9)

"Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." (John 17:3)

The table that the Lord prepares for his people is set with the feast of his own flesh and blood, in the face of sin, death, and hell, the enemies whose gates he, as the Son of Man, has now taken as a man for the sake of mankind, so that his people might feed without fear and thus be delivered from the power of those enemies and walk before him "in the land of the living," which is his own eternal life -- which is the knowledge and experience of Himself.